A Family Weekend in the Alps My immediate family is the only members of our large German family that lives in the United States, so it’s usually a little complicated to organize family gatherings. One of the most recent of these rare occasions was the weekend together in the Austrian Alps that took place over the summer. My mom rented a gigantic “cabin” up in the mountains for our family, our cousins, and both sets of grandparents. Because of the three occupants still under the age of four, the house was constantly filled with the sounds of crying, whining, wailing, and screaming like a nonstop siren and the scents of baby powder and dirty diapers. After dinner in a smoky-smelling Austrian restaurant (smoking is allowed in most European restaurants),we sat by the warm fire in the living room, listened to grandparents telling of their experiences growing up in the wartime, and watched the sun disappearing over the mountaintops like a giant yellow egg yolk. The next day my uncle, dad, sister, and I went up one of the mountains in a creaking ski lift that sounded like an old man standing up and stretching. The mountains were covered with snow at the summits, even though it was already June! When we looked down the people looked like cars on the street looked like tiny beetles.The next morning, we all drove to a different mountain where there was even more snow and it was drifting down too. We kept riding the lifts higher until we saw people actually skiing. In June! When I picked up the snow, it was like a lion biting my fingers. Sadly, we weren’t prepared for such cold weather and descended back to warmer air after taking a couple pictures. At the bottom, the family went to a restaurant, and the food was a happy escape from thoughts of the freezing weather. Later that day, the family once again dispersed to our various cars and went home after a great weekend together.
My immediate family is the only members of our large German family that lives in the United States, so it’s usually a little complicated to organize family gatherings. One of the most recent of these rare occasions was the weekend together in the Austrian Alps that took place over the summer. My mom rented a gigantic “cabin” up in the mountains for our family, our cousins, and both sets of grandparents. Because of the three occupants still under the age of four, the house was constantly filled with the sounds of crying, whining, wailing, and screaming like a nonstop siren and the scents of baby powder and dirty diapers. After dinner in a smoky-smelling Austrian restaurant (smoking is allowed in most European restaurants),we sat by the warm fire in the living room, listened to grandparents telling of their experiences growing up in the wartime, and watched the sun disappearing over the mountaintops like a giant yellow egg yolk. The next day my uncle, dad, sister, and I went up one of the mountains in a creaking ski lift that sounded like an old man standing up and stretching. The mountains were covered with snow at the summits, even though it was already June! When we looked down the people looked like cars on the street looked like tiny beetles.The next morning, we all drove to a different mountain where there was even more snow and it was drifting down too. We kept riding the lifts higher until we saw people actually skiing. In June! When I picked up the snow, it was like a lion biting my fingers. Sadly, we weren’t prepared for such cold weather and descended back to warmer air after taking a couple pictures. At the bottom, the family went to a restaurant, and the food was a happy escape from thoughts of the freezing weather. Later that day, the family once again dispersed to our various cars and went home after a great weekend together.